I do not want to exaggerate but I want to assure that Egypt enjoys unprecedented freedom in the media. No one in the Press or TV was barred. It has never happened in my presidential term that someone was held accounted for what he said whether a journalists or not.

I highly and seriously beg to differ.
It is true that officially the Presidency does not get involve in harassing the journalists and non-journalists from prominent figures expressing opposite views to the regime. The President’s loyal supporters from newspapers owners, channels owners as well journalists and TV hosts do that.
We have a lot of examples.
Starting with Bassem Youssef whose show “AlBernmag” was stopped after one episode from the after the Presidential elections then he was fined LE 50 millions.

If we got unprecedented press freedomwhy are not those guys on TV ?

third season in 2014 on Saudi-owned MBC Misr
Youssef said loud and proud that he would not accept to lower AlBernmag show’s ceiling so he could have once again on air.
Now Bassem Youssef is living abroad and could not come back to Egypt to the level of missing his own father’s funeral and burial for fear he would be arrested.
Youssef wrote in Arabic why he did not want to come back mentioning how journalists are harassed in Egypt for expressing their opinions in a long reply on a Facebook post by writer Samer Amr Atef on why he does not come back.
Close to presidency journalists like Ahmed Moussa and Mostafa Bakry as well El-Sisi supporters were happy that Bassem Youssef’s show was cancelled and continue to attack accusing him of being a traitor.
FYI according to the alleged Sisi leaks, Sisi’s office in the ministry of defense was annoyed from that “boy”.
TV host Reem Magued’s TV show was cancelled on ONTV after two episodes only because the guests spoke about January revolution. The channel claims that it was about the ratings, but everybody knows it is untrue.
In the end, she resigned from the TV channel.
TV host Yosri Fouda’s popular and successful TV show was ended or cancelled to be accurate because of pressure according to the ONTV founder and owner Naguib Sawiris.
TV host Dina Abdel Rahman’s TV show was cancelled as well on CBC TV channel.
None of those TV hosts was approached by any Egyptian TV channels because they are branded to be Pro-Jan25 TV hosts who dare to criticize the government and the regime.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Do remember the infamous Hungarian Camera woman who was filmed kicking and tripping refugees at the Hungarian borders and became the most hated woman only ??
Well her name is Petra László and after being slammed by all the languages of the world and being fired from work, she apologized.
Now this Hungarian lady got an Egyptian Twin sister and this twin sister is called Reham Saeed.
The only difference between Petra and Reham is that Reham is a TV Host star in Egypt
Mrs. Saeed, who got a very popular tabloid TV show “Sabeya El-Kheir” with tons and tons of commercials and sponsors even toppled Ms. László when it comes of being a mean queen, true mean queen

Saeed covered with the Egyptian flags

From a couple of days ago, Saeed who is a strong Pro-Military Pro- El-Sisi supporter aired a special episode from Lebanon.
It was recorded weeks before.
The White Oprah/Angelina Jolie-wannabe appeared in the show distributing aid in Syrian refugees camp in a humiliating way in order to demonstrate how lucky Egyptians were under El-Sisi’s rule.

Showing Syrian refugees fighting over aid and clothes, Saaed while wearing the Egyptian flag with sad eyes and sad face said many things like the following:

These are the people who wasted their country with their political strife , these are the people who are divided. This is the destiny of the people when their country is lost. Look how they left their children and ran to take the clothes pushing each others and beating each other !!!!

Disgusting by all measures.

Reham Saeed distributes aids at the Syrian refugees camp

There was a sad music in the background.
In the end, Saaed shows up saying

I want to return back to Egypt , we are civilized and polite people with high moral !!

Ironically anyone watches her show, will have an opposite idea about Egyptians.
I apologize to the Syrian people everywhere. This woman represents herself and does not represent the Egyptian people.
Many Egyptians got mad after watching this disgusting and disrespectful episode especially true and serious TV hosts like Yosri Fouda slammed Saeed over her disgusting remarks.

Last night I think millions of people around the globe watched the Lunar eclipse and the Super Blood Moon. I am proud that I was among those people.
Of course I waited for the Super Blood Moon with my camera watching all the levels of the Lunar eclipse, it was beautiful and amazing.
Where I was standing in my street, I could not see when it turned red then the position of the moon in the street was shifting with all the street lights on, thick trees and buildings making worse.
It was a great experience to stand 4 am in the street with my mom to get a better shot for the moon alone while all the men looked to us while passing by in their cars as if we were two crazy ladies watching the moon.
Now first are the moon in its closest position to earth, as an amazing Supermoon.

In case , you do know Esraa El-Taweel’s detention has been renewed for another 15 days earlier this week. Yes, she did not spend Eid with her family.
For more than 100 days, she has been away from her family, away from her friend and most importantly away from her freedom.
Esraa’s health condition is getting from bad to worse.
Now Esraa wrote a letter to her family before the renewal of her detention by the State security prosecutor. It was published by her sister Alaa El-Taweel.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Nearly half of the detainees pardoned by Abdel Fattah El-Sisi earlier Wednesday have been released and free.
It is a perfect time to share their photos as free men and women outside bars.
The first batch to be released were the Al Jazeera staff detainees. The security forces dropped Mohamed Fadel, Baher Mohamed and Shady Ibrahim in Maadi.
That was their first photo taken by AFP journalist Samer Al-Atrash.

Fadel, Mohamed and Ibrahim in Maadi by Al-Atrash

Here are Fadel and Baher in a photo with their wives.

The Fadels and Mohameds

Here is Baher after returning home with his little baby Haroun.

Baher and Haroun back together. "I do not know
know who took it :("

After several hours, dozens of other detainees including the ones imprisoned in high profile cases began to be released and their photos showing their happy faces began to flood the timeline on Facebook and twitter.
Here are the most of the girls in the Presidential Palace clashes walking from jail to freedom carrying their bags by Ravy Shaker

Happy Eid to everyone around the globe. In 24 hours, the Muslim world will celebrate Eid Adha around the globe.

Today is the day of Arafah , the climax of Muslims’ Pilgrimage “Hajj” where millions of Muslim head to Mount Arafah.
Now Eid Al-Adha is related to how Prophet Ibrahim “Abraham” was willing to sacrifice his son “Ismael” after being order by God but God intervened in the end and Ismael was replaced by a sheep according to the Islamic version and so Sheep are sacrificed every year after the Eid prayer.
According to Islamic teachings, the meat of that sheep or any livestock is then distributed on the family , relatives and poor people. Each of them gets 1/3 of the meat.
Now because of that ritual , there is whole seasonal livestock farming industry in Egypt for that Eid.
Here is a nice photo story about how people buy sheep before the Eid by yours truly Kodak Agfa.
Before the Eid by two weeks , you can start to see live stock markets set up by raisers and traders in various areas across cities and towns.
Most of those livestock markets are set up in popular working class areas.
The sheep are brought from raisers in the countryside and in Marsa Matrouh , in the North coast in the desert near the Libyan borders.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Dear friend and talented Egyptian AP photographer Mosa’ab El-Shamy is currently in the Holy land in Saudi Arabia covering the annual "Hajj" Pilgrimage which climax will be next on Sunday.
Mosa’ab El-Shamy took photos in both Mecca and Medina showing the Pilgrimage from another perspective.

I like two photos most from that collection , the Mecca pigeons at the Holy Ka’aba and the ladies walking with the deadly crank that killed over hundred people in the Holiest place of Muslims during a thunderstorm last week.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

I have just seen this short video clip now by Photographer Mohamed Hossam El-Din from Al-Masry Al-Youm about that famous inflatable swimming pool in Manshiyat Nasser slums and I believe it should be shared because it brings to me hope.

I have a dream in my life! from Mohamed on Vimeo.
Now I do not know if Mahmoud filmed this earlier this summer or in August because I read that when Youm 7 broke the news first and made a report about that inflatable swimming pool in early June , the municipal workers came and broke it threatening to fine its owner not less LE 10,000 for having illegal swimming pool in the extreme poor area.

By Mohamed Hossam for Al-Masry Al-Youm

Tabloid Pro-regime Youm 7 called the swimming pool “The poor guy Porto” in reference to the famous Upper-Middle Class resorts “Porto” in Egypt.
I think this is another inflatable swimming pool because the owner this time is a man whereas in the story of Youm 7 it was a woman.
This small act of goodness despite their poverty, show that there are people who really care despite all hardships in the society.
Call me crazy but that citizen who bought an inflatable swimming pools for kids to enjoy their time can play a bigger role in his community in elected local councils if he is given prop knowledge with civil rights and community rights not to mention if there is true democracy after all.
I once read about the democratic transition in Brazil and how in poor areas people began to get engaged in the political process through those small steps from making their public spaces and so. .
Anyhow I should not build a whole pyramid from a simple beautiful clip that gives you hope in humans after all.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Thursday afternoon, many people were surprised to find out that there were municipal workers demolishing the famous graffiti American University in Cairo “AUC” wall in the famous Mohamed Mahmoud wall.
I headed there and I asked them what was going on and workers who were puzzled on why young people were photographing them told me that it was by the orders of Cairo governorate.

Working and breaking down the wall on Thursday.

According to the AUC media office, the University decided to demolish its Science building in the AUC Tahrir campus Mohamed Mahmoud street as part of the Tahrir renovation plan of Cairo governorate.

They started with that part of the wall

The AUC science building will be replaced by a garden accordingly as it has not been used since the AUC campus was transferred to New Cairo. The Tahrir AUC Campus already is turned into a cultural hub.
It turned out that this plan was announced last month and nobody paid attention to.

Monday, September 14, 2015

This is how the day started in Egypt on Sunday.
Earlier Sunday a bunch of Pro-Daesh social media accounts online published photos for alleged clashes between their militants and the Egyptian armed forces in some place in the Western desert. The photos were not clear and they only showed the Daesh militants opening their fires in some
desert location and vehicles moving away after being attacked with RPG.
Allegedly those vehicles were the Egyptian armed forces as the group claimed.
In the same statement which I won’t post its link due to its graphic nature, a photo of a beheaded old man was included. According to the Daesh’s militant group calling itself as “Egypt Province”, that man was Saleh Kassem, a local from the Western desert who was beheaded for cooperating with Egyptian authority.

Late 60-years old Saleh Kassem smiling "Al-Shorouk"

The Official Egyptian armed forces spox FB page did not publish anything about that.
The Egyptian mainstream media ignored that statement in compliance with the new terrorism law. Later those events seem to be the key to what happened later.
At 8:54 PM CLT, human rights lawyer Amr Imam wrote the following.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

It has not passed a few hours when suddenly we found that Egypt’s Newest PM Sherif Ismail got very interesting history.
As journalists began to search online for more information about the new Prime minister, they found

his name appearing in very interesting cases when it comes to corruption.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

From few minutes ago, the cabinet led by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab has resigned and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has accepted its resignation.
The current cabinet will remain as a caretaker for another week according to Presidency.
President El-Sisi has assigned Sherif Ismail , the minister of petroleum and mineral sources in Mahlab’s cabinet to form the new cabinet.

Sherif Ismail with President El-Sisi "Presidency"

Ironically on Thursday , PM Mahlab held a cabinet meeting where it was announced that there would be no more resignations after the minister of agriculture’s resignation earlier last week.
Now the whole cabinet has resigned !!

And Mahlab is going "Reuters"

That’s a tough week for Mahlab. Starting with the minister of agriculture’s resignation because of his involvement in Corruption case to his latest embarrassment in Tunisia.
There were rumors that at least 9 other ministers in Mahlab’s cabinet were involved in other corruption scandals by the Administrative Control Authority “ACA”.
Now regarding Sherif Ismail.
Graduated in 1978 as a mechanic engineer, Ismail was appointed as the minister of petroleum and mineral sources in Egypt on 13 July 2013 serving in all the cabinets under Adly Mansour and El-Sis's administration.

New PM Sherif Ismail

Since 1979, Ismail has been working in the petroleum field in Egypt.
I do not know if choosing Ismail was the best choice considering Egypt's huge economic problems.
By the way, a new cabinet will be formed after electing the new parliament in November or December if I am not mistaken. So technically, Ismail's cabinet will live nearly 4 months and then submit its resignation to the parliament according to the Constitution.
The news is developing.

The state security prosecution renewed on Wednesday the detention of Freelance photojournalist Esraa El-Taweel pending investigation for another 15 days.
Esraa has been in detention after being forcibly disappeared from the street in front of Chili’s in Maadi for nearly 104 days if I am not mistaken.

Esraa smiling last Wednesday to her family and friends

The young cheerful outgoing girl who loves life and her friends is facing the charges of belonging to a banned group and sending false photos to news outlets to defame Egypt.
Esraa is accused of being a member in the Muslim Brotherhood, a group which is officially designated as a terrorist organization in Egypt.
On Wednesday, more photographers and video-journalists came and filmed Esraa in her way to the interrogation at the State security Prosecution.

Friday, September 11, 2015

On Wednesday, unnamed sources in the presidency denied in the past 48 hours that there were Egyptian ground troops in Yemen like Reuters and Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Aswat had claimed
Now on Friday, Al-Sharq Al-Aswat published a news that 4 Egyptian combat units arrived Yemen and joined the Saudi-led coalition in addition to the 800 Egyptian soldiers currently in the country according to the unnamed security and military sources.
This is the second time Al-Sharq Al-Aswat publishes such news this week !!
Will the Egyptian armed forces official spokesperson be kind enough and tell us what is happening in Yemen?
Shall we wait the upcoming Sanaa liberation battle led Saudi Arabia where we lose a couple of soldiers and then the army or presidency addresses the matter?
Some transparency for God’s sake !!
Updated :
The official Saudi Armed Forces spokesperson "yes Saudi forces" denied that there were Egyptian or Sudanese ground troops currently in Yemen in a short interview to Saudi state-owned News channel "Al-Akhbariya" Friday afternoon.

A war warning " A front-page headline
from 1960s Al-Akhbar newspaper
over the Yemen crisis during then

Today afternoon Reuters published a report that turned Egypt’s social media upside down. Quoting two anonymous military sources, Reuters said that Egypt sent as many as 800 Egyptian soldiers to Yemen on Tuesday.
Four Egyptian units of between 150 to 200 troops along with tanks and transport vehicles arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, two Egyptian security sources said.
This is from Reuters.
Same thing was reportedly published by DPA in Germany.
It caused a lot of noise whether in Egypt or Yemen.
Needless to say, the Yemenis were not welcoming that move and her I am referring to the Yemenis who fed up from both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis.
A group of Egyptians have launched this hashtag to express their refusal to send Egyptian ground forces in Yemen “#Egyptians_against_Egyptian_interfere_Yemen”
As I hinted before, Egyptians have a deep wound called “The war in Yemen of 1960s” where thousands of Egyptian soldiers and fighters got killed for useless war.

Earlier Tuesday, Egypt’s Prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab stormed out from a press conference with his Tunisian counterpart during to his visit to Carthage because a Tunisian journalist dared and asked him about the latest corruption scandal rocking his cabinet back in Cairo.
You can see what happened here.

Egypt’s PM storms out of a presser in Tunisia

Mahlab is in two-days visit to Tunisia
Tunisian journalist Miqdad Al-Majari asked Ibrahim Mahlab about the resignation of the agriculture minister Salah Helal and his arrest in Cairo because of his involvement in a huge corruption scandal yesterday.
He also hinted that Mahlab chose that minister and he brought up the fact the name of Mahlab was included in the Mubaraks’ mansion case.
I do not recall that any journalist whether in Egypt or outside has confronted Mahlab in his direct involvement in that case.
Mahlab did not have any answer and walked away in that shameful way that does not suit the Prime Minister of Egypt or any country actually as you have seen.
He weakened his position already

The detained workers were referred to a special military tribunal led by members of the Free officers movement. The defendants did not have lawyers in that shameful trial.
Khamis and El-Bakry were sentenced to death in that shameful trial.
On 7 September 1952 , they were executed.
Dear friend Omar Zazou decided to remind the people of what happened during then especially when it comes the role of the Free Officers as well the Muslim Brotherhood in that shameful execution in very short and summarized tweets.
Zazou wrote that first tweet and got that reply from an old Egyptian man who lives in California “ I assume according to the geographical location of the tweet”

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Ironically, It seems that former army officer-turned to Al-Qaeda prince Hisham El-Ashamawy is not a wanted man in Egypt officially, but he is also a wanted man in Libya according to Egypt's enemies in Derna.
The Islamic State group aka Daesh also wants to see him dead !! !!
I told you it is ironic but yes the former Egyptian special forces officer is a wanted man by both Egyptian government and Daesh.
Daesh claimed responsibility of killing 20 Egyptian Christian Copt workers last February and the Egyptian government answered back by air strikes in the city of Derna , Libya.
El-Ashamawy is already facing a military trial in Egypt and is said to be the main suspect in the assassination of former Egypt's prosecutor general Hisham Barakat.

Wanted dead

The Islamic state aka Daesh in Libya released an announcement late last month showing the photo of El-Ashamawy demanding him dead.
That announcement reveals more information about the 35-years old former/defected special forces officer.
The married father of 2 boys joined Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis “ABM”, the Sinai-based militant group in 2013 after his return in Syria.
It says also that he defected from ABM in 2014 and headed to Libya in the same year.
In Libya, precisely in Derna where Daesh announced the so-called Derna Province, Hisham El-Ashmawy joined what they called “Sahawat council Derna” and started a war against Daesh in the Libyan city.
The Sahawat council of Derna is affiliated with Shura council of Mujahideen in Derna, which is also affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Since last October, there have been tough battles between the Al-Qaeda affiliated group and the Daesh affiliated group in Derna.

If you have ever been to the famous Khan El-Khalili quarter, I am sure that you stopped at small bookshop inside selling old magazines and posters.

That bookshop in Khan El-Khalili

I do not know its name, but this is from the places you can not forget thanks to its excellent old magazines, newspapers. films posters and stamps

From old political magazines to comics magazines

It is the place to find old pricey newspapers and magazines in good condition if you are ready to spend a lot of money and do not like buying old magazines and newspapers from El-Azbakeya market for old and used books in Cairo.
As I hinted the old magazines and newspapers are pricey, they are not cheap at all compared to other places in Cairo.

An old magazine from the Royal Family era pre-1952 can reach up to LE 1,200.

Ministry of higher education
That exemption is applied to the new students’ admission and transfer from another public universities in Egypt to the country’s top public universities, Cairo University and Ain Shams University in Grand Cairo zone.
This is the first year the ministry of high education and supreme council of Universities apply the new Public Universities admission system which depends on Geographic placement requirements as well the grades or scores of students in High school especially in the Egyptian High school system aka “Thanawya Aama”.
The geographic placements requirements stipulate that students must choose or admit to public universities in the zones they live in or nearby aside from their grades.
This is the first time this system is applied in Egypt. Personally I think that it is adopted in order to drop the number of students from other governorates in Cairo and Ain Shams Universities.
Anyhow now the officers and judges’ offspring are exempted from those requirements and they transfer from Universities in governorates to Cairo and Ain Shams Universities easily.
When Al-Shorouk newspaper asked the minister of higher education about the decision and he said that he did not want the officers and judges to get distracted in their work and worried about their children if they are in another governorate and that it was better to make them focus in their work affecting Egypt’s Nationals security !!!!!

Thursday, September 3, 2015

I have seen a lot of graphic photos since the start of the Syrian revolution and how it turned into an awful civil/regional war but some of them have stuck into my mind.
The photos of Hamza Al-Khateeb in 2011 are still in my mind whether he was alive or dead by the hand of Bashar El-Assad’s security forces.
The video of that boy whose jaw was blown off and died before he would be transferred to another country for treatment by the Red Cross in 2012.
The photo of that Syrian toddler washed up at a Turkish shore has joined that awful graphic photos and videos from the Syrian regional war.

Syrian toddler washed up on Turkish shore by Reuters

I can not describe how I felt and still feel when I see his tiny body lying like that on the sand except that I want to hug him in my arms and put him in a bed. He looks as if he were sleeping.
The look of the Turkish Gendarmerie soldiers says it all.

Amal Clooney met with PM Mahlab on Sunday along with Marwa Omara, Mohamed Fadel’s wife. Clooney represents Fadel, the former head Al-Jazeera international bureau in Cairo sentenced three years in jail.
Hossam Gowaish is a diplomat and yet he did not notice that the amount of sexism in his statement about a renowned international human rights lawyer.
That degraded look to Amal Clooney was the common theme in the Pro-regime mainstream and social media as well their awful mob online.
The international human rights lawyer is now ridiculed to the level of speaking about her as “Novice lawyer from a small attorney office in London who is married to a famous Hollywood actor who divided South Sudan and want to divide Egypt as well’. I did not know that George Clooney was so influential !!!!

Two samples of those comments on CBC
FB page by Pro-regime supporters

That comment or rather Conspiracy theory was shared frequently in the Pro-regime Facebook pages and comments in the past 48 hours. There was another comment I saw frequently that she is too thin and not that beautiful so she would marry a Hollywood star in the first place.
On TV, it was even worse and I am not speaking about Gowaish but rather the Pro-regime TV hosts band.